Lena Claesson-Welsh ‘Cancer Researcher of the Year’

2017-01-09

The Swedish Cancer Society has selected Lena Claesson-Welsh as ‘Cancer Researcher of the Year’ 2017. The award includes a generous grant from Swedish Cancer Society, and that the group’s research is highlighted in different ways.

“I am very happy that our research is awarded, says Lena Claesson-Welsh. My group and I are working focused and with a high ambition to contribute to better cancer treatments. The support from the Swedish Cancer Society comes from donors that have had family members with cancer, or are themselves cancer patients, which makes this award very special.

Lena Claesson-Welsh’s research concerns the role of blood vessels in health and disease.

“The formation of new blood vessels is normally very strictly regulated but in some diseases, such as cancer, blood vessel formation is exaggerated. This leads to disorganised vessels with impaired function. When such vessels are formed in a tumour there is an increased risk that the tumour will spread and it reduces the possibilities for drugs to reach the tumour. In my research group we focus on identifying and characterising signalling proteins that control blood vessel formation. With an increased knowledge about these proteins we hope to be able to restore blood vessel function and by this way improve the possibilities to treat and cure cancer,” says Lena Claesson-Welsh.

The award was presented during the Swedish Cancer Society's gala Tillsammans mot cancer.

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Marcel den Hoed is co-applicant in a project that was recently awarded a grant from the American NIH. The project will address the link between obesity and cardiometabolic complications and is a collaboration between researchers from USA, UK and Sweden.

The Swedish Research Council has decided to finance Swedish research infrastructures with in total SEK 4 billion in the coming years. Biobank Sweden, coordinated by Tobias Sjöblom, receives one of the grants.

Sven Nelander has together with the co-applicants Christer Betsholtz and Bengt Westermark at IGP, and Philip Gerlee and Rebecka Jörnsten at University of Gothenburg, been granted SEK 30 million from the Swedish Foundation for Strategic Research (SSF).

The Knut and Alice Wallenberg Foundation has decided to select Richard Rosenquist Brandell as Wallenberg Clinical Scholar, which means that he will receive a research grant of 15 million SEK for a five-year period.

The foundation Mats Paulssons stiftelse has decided to continue supporting a collaboration in the cancer area between the universities in Uppsala and Lund. The support will also increase from one to two million SEK.

On 27 January, Professor Marcia McNutt was conferred an honorary doctorate from the Medical and Pharmaceutical Faculties. IGP and Karin Forsberg Nilsson hosted her visit in Uppsala, which also included an honorary doctorate lecture in the Rudbeck Hall on 26 January.

The Swedish Cancer Society has selected Lena Claesson-Welsh as ‘Cancer Researcher of the Year’ 2017. The award includes a generous grant from Swedish Cancer Society, and that the group’s research is highlighted in different ways.